Two books, written in plain English

The fact is that many of us in this world are living quite mindlessly, not mindfully. Sometimes it can feel like we're wandering from one day to the next, fighting fires, dealing with the latest hurdle, responding to whatever's going on in our life, without end, and without a meaningful purpose. We do our usual routine of breakfast, commute, work, TV, music, and so on, then we go to bed, and we may not even take notice as the days go by.

In summary, I think it's safe to say that many of us are obsessively distracted from the moment we get up to the moment we go to bed. Harvard researchers concluded that about 50% of the time, we're actually distracted from what we're doing. Interestingly, research has also highlighted that people who are mindfully present and actively concentrating on what they were doing report higher happiness levels and higher levels of feeling like their life has meaning and purpose.

Despite living relatively comfortable lives, having a home, food, company, and conveniences many in the world would envy, many of us still feel unhappy and unfulfilled. Why? It's clear why physical pain occurs: if you scrape your knee, the cause of your pain is apparent. Yet, dissatisfaction and mental unhappiness aren't always so easy to explain.

Everything we do is in the pursuit of happiness, comfort, and fulfilment, but this remains a constant pursuit. We experience the pleasure of a new phone, a nice meal, and time with friends, but it quickly fades, replaced by an itch for more. Clearly, our recipe for happiness is missing something: it needs to address our underlying sense of dissatisfaction with ourselves and the world. Perhaps happiness isn't about having perfect external circumstances. Perhaps it's about how we relate to what happens in our lives, and the quality of our minds. Perhaps happiness is not something we get from the world, but something we bring to it.